I am alone in a round pen, intentionally scaring a horse that could kill me.

I wave a wand that has a plastic bag tied to the end of it. This strange, snapping object scares the horse, making him trot nervously around the edges of the pen.

Tom Chambers, a ‘Horse Listener’ is standing outside the pen, coaching me. “Keep your eye on his rear flank,” he says. “Don’t look him in the eye. That tells him that you want him to go away. Okay, he’s getting tired. He’s licking his lips, That’s ‘baby talk’ for a horse. He wants you to take care of him and make the scary bag go away. When you want him to stop running, just say 'Stop!' in your brain."

Arizona conjures up images of giant saguaros and wide open desert spaces, Phoenix, Flagstaff and maybe even Route 66. But if you’re like most people, the first thing you’ll think of when you think of Arizona is the Grand Canyon.

If you’ve never seen the Grand Canyon, you owe it to yourself to plan an Arizona trip to take in the majesty of one of the world’s seven natural wonders. Stretching 277 miles from east to west and 18 miles at its widest point, the Grand Canyon dazzles around five million people each year. Read more

Tony Hillerman, the author who featured Navajo detectives in his fantastically successful mystery stories, once said, “I want Americans to stop thinking of Navajos as primitive persons, to understand that they are sophisticated and complicated.”

When you visit the natural wonders of Arizona, you will undoubtedly spend a great deal of time in the Navajo Nation.

Spreading across 27,000 square miles in three states, it is the largest area of land assigned to a Native American group, and the Navajo (or Dineh, as they call themselves) are the largest American Indian tribe with 180,000 registered residents. Read more

With all the great places to see in the Southwest, it’s good to have a central point to use a base. Page, Arizona, is smack in the center of what is called The Grand Circle, a vaguely defined area encompassing southern Utah, northern Arizona, parts of New Mexico and, depending on who you talk to, parts of Colorado and/or Nevada.

Lake Powell - photo by Shady Hartshorne

It’s called the Grand Circle because it includes the Grand Canyon, Bryce, Zion, Mesa Verde, Arches and many other spectacular sites. Page is not only in the middle of all this but it also sits just above the Glen Canyon Dam which means Lake Powell and the beautiful Colorado River are just a short ride away. Read more

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